The Call of the Wild

In "Call of the Wild", a domestic dog is kidnapped from his comfortable life on a California estate and thrown into the wild north woods. Buck, half St. Bernard and half Scottish shepherd, is a strong dog but not accustomed to the harsh life of the north and he must fight for survival. He learns how to work hard; how to dig a hole in a snowbank to stay warm; how to eat anything no matter how loathsome; how to scent the weather; how to break ice to find water; and most importantly, how to survive cruelty.

I remembered enjoying White Fang as a kid, and I purchased this book during a classics binge, without reading the description. I was surprised to find I was reading yet ANOTHER Jack London book about a wolf/dog. Oh well.

I don't think I found this book as engaging as White Fang, but it's been a decade since I read the latter, so I could be warping things in my mind. Either way, I feel I'm a bit too old to be reading stories about anthropomorphized dogs. It just didn't do anything for me.

Still, I enjoyed the prose, and this audiobook contained one of the greatest short stories of all time: To Build a Fire. So it was worth my time, I think.

The Cold Dish: A Walt Longmire Mystery

Award-winning author Craig Johnson's critically acclaimed debut Western mystery takes listeners to the breathtaking mountains of Wyoming for a tale of cold-blooded vengeance. Four high-school boys were given suspended sentences for raping a Cheyenne girl. Now, two of the boys have been killed, and only Sheriff Walt Longmire can keep the other two safe.

Water for Elephants

Why we think it’s a great listen: Some books are meant to be read; others are meant to be heard – Water for Elephants falls into the second group, and is one of the best examples we have of how a powerful performance enhances a great story. Nonagenarian Jacob Jankowski reflects back on his wild and wondrous days with a circus. It's the Depression Era and Jacob, finding himself parentless and penniless, joins the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth.

This is not my usual genre of choice. I tend to lean towards sci-fi, fantasy, or thrillers. But, I'm always trying to expand my horizons, so I thought I'd try literary fiction for a change.

The well-written characters and dialog sucked me in. The plot lacked some of pizzazz that I generally prefer, but it was gripping, full of drama and danger. I was satisfied.

I would have given this book 4 stars across the board, but the incredible writing and narration of the old man in the nursing home was A+ work, and some of the best listening audible has shown me so far.

Peter and the Starcatchers: The Starcatchers, Book 1

In an evocative and fast-paced adventure on the high seas and on a faraway island an orphan boy named Peter and his mysterious new friend, Molly, overcome bands of pirates and thieves in their quest to keep a fantastical secret safe and save the world from evil.

Dimension of Miracles

Dimension of Miracles is a satirical science fiction novel first published by Dell in 1968. It's about Tom Carmody, a New Yorker who, thanks to a computer error, wins the main prize in the Intergalactic Sweepstakes. Tom claims his prize before the error is discovered and is allowed to keep it. However, since Tom is a human from Earth without galactic status and no space traveling experience, he has no homing instinct that can guide him back to Earth once his odyssey begins - and the galactic lottery organizers cannot transport him home.

Author Ronda Del Boccio says:"Hilarious! - Could have been written this year"

Bellwether

Sandra Foster studies fads and their meanings for the HiTek corporation. Bennett O'Reilly works with monkey group behavior and chaos theory for the same company. When the two are thrust together due to a misdelivered package and a run of seemingly bad luck, they find a joint project in a flock of sheep. But a series of setbacks and disappointments arise before they are able to find answers to their questions - with the unintended help of the errant, forgetful, and careless office assistant Flip.

Timebound

When Kate Pierce-Keller’s grandmother gives her a strange blue medallion and speaks of time travel, sixteen-year-old Kate assumes the old woman is delusional. But it all becomes horrifyingly real when a murder in the past destroys the foundation of Kate’s present-day life. Suddenly, that medallion is the only thing protecting Kate from blinking out of existence. Kate learns that the 1893 killing is part of something much more sinister, and her genetic ability to time travel makes Kate the only one who can fix the future.

Smarter than I expected, but not terribly deep. I enjoyed this book, and I think it has real potential to be an interesting series. That being said, the story didn't really speak to me personally, and I'm not sure I'll be coming back to it.

This story is probably perfect for young girls who can identify with the main character.

We Are All Weird: The Myth of Mass and the End of Compliance

We Are All Weird is a celebration of choice, of treating different people differently and of embracing the notion that everyone deserves the dignity and respect that comes from being heard. The book calls for end of "mass" and for the beginning of offering people more choices, more interests, and giving them more authority to operate in ways that reflect their own unique values.

Guy Noir and the Straight Skinny

On the 12th floor of the Acme Building, on a cold February day in St. Paul, Guy Noir looks down the barrel of a loaded revolver in the hands of geezer gangster Joey Roast Beef, who is demanding to hear what lucrative scheme Guy is cooking up with stripper-turned-women's-studies-professor Naomi Fallopian. Everyone wants to know, and Guy faces them one by one, as he and Naomi pursue a dream of earning gazillions by selling a surefire method of dramatic weight loss.

Slim by Design: Mindless Eating Solutions for Everyday Life

InSlim by Design, leading behavioral economist, food psychologist, and bestselling author Brian Wansink introduces groundbreaking solutions for designing our most common spaces - schools, restaurants, grocery stores, and home kitchens, among others - in order to make positive changes in how we approach and manage our diets.

The Warded Man

Peter V. Brett has won accolades from critics, fans and fellow authors alike for this riveting debut novel. The Warded Man features a world where demons stalk the night, hunting humans who have long forgotten the magic of their ancestors. But all is not lost, as some hold out hope that a savior will release humanity from the demons' terrifying reign.

If I hadn't read the Mistborn trilogy, The Way of Kings, and tons of other Branden Sanderson books, I might have been more impressed with the Warded Man. But this really felt exactly like one of Sanderson's heroes' journeys.

I didn't find the premise interesting enough to warrant an entire series. I enjoyed the first book, but I didn't care enough about the story to want to read a sequel. Mostly this is because our main character becomes rather foreign to us near the end of the story. I stopped empathizing with him, and our other central characters were not enough to keep me emotionally involved in the plot.

All in all, a well constructed book... and had it been my first introduction to the genre, I'm sure I would have liked it a lot more.

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